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COLOMBO: Sri Lanka President Maithripala Sirisena has pardoned a hardline Buddhist monk who is accused of inciting violence against ethnic minority Muslims and convicted of contempt of court, officials said on Wednesday. The president’s office did not give any reason for the pardon, which was condemned by a security thinktank as a blow to Sri Lanka’s “battered rule of law”.
The pardoning of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, head of the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force”, comes a week after extremist Buddhists attacked Muslim-owned homes, mosques and shops in apparent reprisal for the Easter bombings by Islamist militants that killed more than 250 people. Government ministers and Muslim leaders openly accused Gnanasara of stirring up violence against Muslims and Christians before his imprisonment, allegations he has denied. (Reuters)
The pardoning of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, head of the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force”, comes a week after extremist Buddhists attacked Muslim-owned homes, mosques and shops in apparent reprisal for the Easter bombings by Islamist militants that killed more than 250 people. Government ministers and Muslim leaders openly accused Gnanasara of stirring up violence against Muslims and Christians before his imprisonment, allegations he has denied. (Reuters)
